By Keith Thomas
Staff Writer

Despite dropping the final of a four game series against Michigan State 8-3 Sunday, the Boilers won the series over the weekend.

Purdue (13-7, 3-1 Big Ten) began its Big Ten season with a victory over the Spartans (5-15, 1-3) on Friday. Purdue followed that by winning both ends of a double header on Saturday before coming up short in Sunday’s disappointing loss.

Coach Doug Schreiber said it would have been nice to finish strong on Sunday, completing a weekend sweep.

"You could say we won the series," said Schreiber, "but I’d say we’re very disappointed because when you’ve got a team down 3-0 and a chance to sweep them and do something special, then you’ve got to take advantage of it, but we came in flat."

In a season where solid pitching has carried the Boilers to a successful start, the Spartans scored eight runs on 10 hits in Sunday’s game.

Starter Russ Morgan (3-3) took the loss while allowing five earned runs on five hits in 4.2 innings. Morgan, who walked two and struck out one, didn't blame the Boiler offense for its lack of run support early in the game.

"It all goes back to pitching," said Morgan. "If you don’t pitch well then the game usually doesn’t end up very well."

The Boiler offense put together nine hits but had trouble getting the runs in — leaving nine runners stranded on base. Schreiber pointed to the ineffectiveness of the three, four and five hitters in the lineup as one reason the Boilers had difficulty scoring runs Sunday. The middle of the lineup was a combined 1-for-12 on the day — the lone hit a single coming from the bat of second baseman Erik Frei.

"We’re not doing what we need to do offensively," said Schreiber.

Left fielder Brad Kriner, who was 2-for-4 with a run scored on Sunday, agreed that the Purdue offense needs to improve its production.

"We’ve been leaving a lot of guys on base lately," said Kriner. "When you can’t score runs like this, then eventually the other team is going to break out and score more than us."

One bright spot for the Boilers Sunday came from the legs of first baseman David Blomberg. Blomberg added three more steals and now has a team leading 12 stolen bases. He has been thrown out only once this year.

Blomberg, who added two hits on Sunday, said he credits his off season work ethic and the coaching staff for his recent outburst of thefts.

"Schreiber and (Todd) Murphy instill a really aggressive style of play," said Blomberg.

Although aggressive on the base path, the Boilers were not aggressive enough at the plate Sunday, which disappointed Schreiber, a closet perfectionist. He said that Sunday’s loss overshadows the fact that the Boilers won the first three Big Ten games of the season on Friday and Saturday.

"It sours the weekend," Schreiber said. "I’ll take full responsibility because I should have gotten the guys ready to play,"

Saturday’s action featured the Boilers taking a pair from the Spartans, thanks to solid pitching performances.

In game one, left hander David Gassner (3-1) threw six innings, allowing two earned runs on eight hits. Gassner recorded five strikeouts and handed out only two free passes. Closer Andy Helmer (1-0) came on in relief, striking out all three batters he faced to notch his sixth save of the season in preserving a 4-3 Boiler victory.

In game two, right hander Jeremy Ballard (3-0) went six innings, allowing two earned runs on five hits. Ballard had two strikeouts and walked one. Junior Ben Kaebisch (1-0) pitched the last inning for his first save of the season. Purdue won the game 5-2.

"Pitching kept us in there all weekend," said Schreiber.

Game two featured more offense than the first game, with center fielder Nate Sickler hitting his team leading seventh home run of the season and third baseman Darryl Hallada knocking in three runs.

Friday, the Boilers opened their Big Ten season with a 3-1 win thanks to a solid outing from junior Ben Quick (2-2). Quick, a community college transfer from Riverside, Calif., threw eight innings. The outing matched his longest of the season in his first game at Lambert field.

Despite a solid 3-1 conference start, Schreiber said the Boilers need to work some things out if they want to see continued success.

"There’s a lot of baseball to be played yet," said Schreiber. "We’ve got 24 games left to play in conference, so we’ve just got to go one at a time and not get ahead of ourselves."